Doin' Drugs

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been pretty concerned about how my blood sugars have been coming out in the morning. Even when they were low at night, they were unacceptably high in the morning. Finally, I remembered that it doesn't really matter how much drugs I take; what matters is the result. I can't wallow in the drugs as compensation for eating badly, but if I need more drugs for some reason, they're there to be taken. So for the last four days, I've taken about ten percent more of the long acting insulin than I normally take. The results were excellent -- three days out of four, the morning number was down where I liked it to be. In fact, I was able to start edging the amount down closer to normal and still get good results.

So you might say that insulin's been on my mind.

I was therefore quite irritated when a shipment of insulin arrived today from Medco, my current mail supplier -- they have a contract with UHC, my wife's insurer -- and the damn insulin wasn't cold to the touch. The chill pack was just about warm, in fact. Now, this package did sit in 85 degree heat for about three hours, but it should still have been cool. So, what's going on? And then I find this in the papers shipped with the drug:

Your medication was shipped via second-day service with a frozen gel pack. This gel pack is designed to maintain an acceptable temperature range for your prescription... and may not be cold upon arrival. Insulin should be inspected for any unexpected changes such as clumping, frosting, change in color, or clarity."

So what they're saying is, they're going to use a cheaper method, and its probably okay. But it's my responsibility to make sure.

Oh, and their customer service message center? Or UHC's? Doesn't include any way to say GODDAMN IT!